Re: Custom links in profile fields instead of /members/?s=
You might also want to try this plugin, https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-profile-filters-for-buddypress/, read the third option
“Administrators can specify certain profile fields that link to social networking profiles. If I enter my Twitter handle ‘boonebgorges’ into a field labeled ‘Twitter’, for example, this plugin will bypass the default link to a BuddyPress search on ‘boonebgorges’ and instead link to http://twitter.com/boonebgorges. See custom-profile-filters-for-buddypress-bp-functions.php to configure this setting.”
You might be able to hack it in a way that works for your site.